Marketing Minute: Using Micro-Moments to Connect with Homeowners

Quick question: where is your cell phone right at this second? Think about it. I’d be willing to bet that the answer is in your pocket, on your desk, in a bag by your feet, or you are reading this article on your smartphone.

For better or for worse, mobile devices have changed the way we live our lives.

While that might seem scary, it really doesn’t have to be, especially for businesses. A mobile-first world gives us more opportunities to connect with potential customers in their moments of need. Our friends at Google calls these moments of need micro-moments.

Home service contractors have an amazing, money-making opportunity to tap into the micro-moments that anyone who has had the joy of experiencing home-ownership knows like discovering there is a leak in your roof or that your water heater is broken. What do you think that homeowner would do?

Studies show that 9 out of 10 of those homeowners would grab their phone and look up the problem they are having. With that in mind it is crucial for a home service contractor to be the one in your service area that reaches that homeowner in his or her time of need with the most relevant information.

There are 3 things to keep in mind if you want to capitalize on these moments:

Be There

This may seem terribly obvious, but it’s true. And, it’s not just about being on the first page anymore. You need to be “above the fold.” In the newspaper world, that means literally above the fold of a newspaper. But in the Internet world – it means being before someone needs to scroll on their smartphone.

You also need to make sure that you are coming up at the time of need by bidding on the correct keywords. What may seem obvious to you, might not be obvious to a homeowner. The key here is making sure that you think like your customers when deciding on keywords. This could also help you bid on high quality keywords at a lower price because your competitors might not be thinking to buy them. Double win!

Be Useful

65% of homeowners say that when they are looking for a service on their phone, they look for the most relevant, useful information and will go with that company regardless of who it is. Gone are the days of brand loyalty, especially in an emergency situation like a flooded basement or a broken A/C unit in the middle of summer.

There are 2 components of being useful in a home-owners’ micro-moment – awell-written ad and a relevant landing page.

Once you’ve gotten above the fold, you want to make sure that your ad is useful to the person in the time of need. This may seem obvious, but we see companies making this mistake all the time – ads should refer to the search terms, and not to something else. If someone typed in clogged drain, your HVAC ad shouldn’t pop up – your drain cleaning ad should pop up!

The ad copy is also important, too. Make sure you are writing your ad in a way that says to the homeowner “I am the best person to help you in your time of need.” Use specials or promotions your competitors might not think of like “same day service” or “speak with someone now” or “free estimates.”

Once you’ve got your ad copy down, make sure you are sending them to an appropriate landing page. A lot of ads just go to the website, but if you are a company that offers a wide variety of services, someone might get lost if they go to your website. Instead, send them to a landing page for the service that will fix their problem. That landing page also needs to be mobile-friendly. Using a smaller version of your website is very 2009. At AdMachines we build responsive landing pages so that it automatically optimizes for mobile. Also, provide plenty of places for someone to convert like click-to-call buttons so that the conversion process is quick.

Which leads me to…

Be Quick

Google calls these micro-moments for a reason. Customers have needs that they want met and can get met quickly. You want your mobile experience to be fast and frictionless. Click-to-call buttons help speed up the conversion process but there are other things to keep in mind when making sure you are quick in the moment of need.

Courtesy-SOASTA

First of all, your mobile sites need to load fast. Research shows that homeowners will not wait longer than 3 seconds before abandoning the site. At that point, you’ve already paid the click so you should be making sure you are doing all you can on your end to get that click to convert. It’s not fun to lose a job because your mobile site runs slow.

You should also be able to eliminate steps. Like the click-to-call button on the landing page like I mentioned earlier, there should also be a way for homeowners to call you straight from your ad. This can either be through call extensions or through setting up mobile call only ads.

Being there for homeowners in their daily micro-moments of need can mean the difference of someone calling you or calling your competitor. Consider the ways you can help take advantage of micro-moments for your target customers and get in touch with an AdMachines expert who can get you in front of your target customers today.